Wireless communications have become pervasive in recent years. At first, telecommunications provided cordless handsets to enable consumers to use a home telephone without being restricted by a telephone cord. Mobile telephones further provided freedom to consumers by enabling them to use a telephone while away home. Finally, computers that were once attached to a wall socket to communicate over the Internet became wireless through the use of wireless routers and other consumer wireless access points (e.g., home consumer wireless routers).
Mobility further expanded by commercial wireless access points becoming available and proliferating throughout society. Broadband wireless access points have become available at coffee shops, airports, hotels, and other commercial locations to resell wireless access. These commercial wireless access points have become available for a number of reasons, including attracting computer users who enjoy accessing the Internet and generating network access fees. A commercial establishment may become a reseller of network access for a communications carrier by providing reseller wireless access points at the commercial establishment. For example, Starbucks® coffee shops are resellers of T-Mobile® communications services. Each of these commercial companies financially benefit when users access the T-Mobile® communications network via the wireless access points within Starbucks®.
One situation that has developed by home consumer wireless routers becoming so pervasive is non-subscribers accessing wireless routers and network services being paid by their consumer subscriber neighbors. This situation arises when a consumer subscriber does not password protect access to the wireless router. In the case of a non-subscriber's unauthorized access of a subscriber's wireless router, this act is considered theft of wireless communications services. In the case where the subscriber knowingly allows for non-subscribers to access the wireless router, such an act is generally prohibited by terms and conditions of consumer service agreements between the service provider and the consumer subscriber.
Another situation that has developed is one where a third-party, non-communications carrier sells wireless routers that are connected to network connections of subscribers of communications carriers. The third-party, non-communications carrier sells subscription agreements to customers to access a network via these wireless routers. The customers of the third-party, non-communications carrier are able to connect to the network via the wireless routers without having to pay the communications carriers, thereby saving money. However, such configurations and subscription agreements are against the terms and conditions of subscription agreements of the subscribers of the communications carriers because, in effect, those subscribers providing access to non-subscribers are operating as resellers of network access. In some cases, the subscribers that provide access to non-subscribers are paid by the third-party, non-communications carrier to provide access to subscribers of the third-party, non-communications carrier network.
Commercial companies that provide telecommunications and other wireless services (eg., wireless Internet services via commercial wireless routers at office buildings) to its employees use conventional communications devices and systems. For example, many employers provide its employees with mobile telephones and broadband wireless communications cards, in the case of wireless Internet access. Commercial employees who service consumer residential properties are often out-of-range of mobile communications services, which is a problem when they are to handle ongoing calls and communications with other employees of the company. For example, a garage door installation team might be working on a residential property at a new subdivision that is remote or has limited communications services from existing telecommunications services. An employee attempting to notify the garage door installation team might be incapable of notifying the team of another job or time remaining to complete an installation, which is problematic from a work-scheduling standpoint.
While wireless routers have enabled computer users to access the Internet with unprecedented freedom, bandwidth of these routers is relatively slow. Today's technology provides users with 50 megabit (MB) per second communications. However, these speeds are relatively slow when downloading large amounts of content, such as a movie.
A number of third-party bandwidth expansion products have been developed to increase bandwidth to those who purchase these bandwidth expansion products. One such product provides a subscriber with a device to aggregate bandwidth from local wireless routers. Essentially, communication with each local wireless router is performed in parallel. However, the act of bandwidth pooling by consumer non-resellers is also considered a violation of the terms and conditions of a communications carrier's subscription agreement because non-subscribers or users other than the subscriber who owns the wireless router are provided access to the wireless routers and telecommunications services without paying a telecommunications carrier for that access or expanded access.
Subscribers of a communications carrier often find themselves traveling to locations that are not serviced by their communications carrier. Other communications carriers, however, may service these locations. As previously described, terms and conditions of subscription agreements of communications carriers do not allow anyone other than the subscriber to access wireless access points of the subscribers. Therefore, when a subscriber is traveling, he or she is limited to accessing a wireless network via a commercial reseller of wireless network access, which may be expensive.